Monday 13 April 2020
NOTE to Canadian Conservative spokesman Pierre Poilievere: Singapore's leader was government friendly
Looking for anything to further boost their pro-business credentials Tory leader recently hit on the example of Singapore and its radically "open and free market economy". Only problem is that Tory spokesman and Singapore booster Pierre Poilievre, unlike the writer of this post, who spent his early childhood on the island and attended the same university college as Singapore's independence leader and long time prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, seems to have little personal knowledge of the tiny island that has a better standard of living than Canada. Key point: Singapore was led to independence and prosperity by a leader, by profession a labour lawyer, anti-communist yes, but open to socialism, who created the People's Action Party that combined an enthusiasm for enterprise deriving from Singapore's location as a commerce crossroads, with an aggressively interventionist state. Poilievre harps on Singapore's entrepreneurial spirit and its small government but for ideological convenience forgets much of the rest crucial to its history.There are indeed lessons here for Canada, but it looks like many are lost on Tory ideologues like Poilievre.
# posted by Taodhg @ 12:26 pm 
